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How to make the Indian Cricket League work?

Making a professional sports league work is very simple in India. Make it professional, keep the sport and make it a league. Yet, there aren't any successful professional leagues in India. Why?
The answer is simple: The failure to identify the target audience.

Millions of Indians pay their hard earned money to view EPL, Serie A, F1, Tour De France, NBA. Some even pay big money on MLB and Golf Tournaments. So why couldn't an Indian sports league get the same kind of money. It's because till now Indian Leagues' have not offered a package deal. By package I mean a wholesome entertainment experience for their target audience.

Indian Cricket League is the Essel Group's foray into this space and I think they will have to be genuinely foolish to lose money on this. But till now they have made a mess of it.
First, of all they must accept that they are in it for the money. Second, they have to tell the people that they are here to give the viewer's a better experience. Third, they must stick to 20-20 and hit it hard on the BCCI's face.
20-20 is a very powerful medium. Packer changed the cricketing world with his limited over's format. Twenty20 too is here to stay and may become the world's new cricketing format if correctly marketed.

So what should ICL do? Well, they should change the Cricket Package that I see on TV. I have been bored enough by cricketer's who were great in their time but are terrible commentators. We need the Harsha Bhogles to comment and not the Sunny Gavaskar's. We need constantly running chirpiness from someone or the other.
We need to see the commentators on the sidelines of the ground, than in faraway commentary boxes. We need to talk more often to the players (not just one player in the middle as happens in Twenty20). We need to talk to coaches, physio's in real time....do it continously.

We need professional coaches/background staff etc...and professionally fit players. we need players who can run 4 runs when in normal cricket players run just 2.

And if need be, most importantly ICL needs to change the game. Use smaller pitches and grounds. We need to see harder shots to the boundary. Use more tech intervention in umpiring. Use livelier wickets, use different stuff, change the sidescreens, let one bowler bowl continous overs, let captains' change balls as they wish.

But whatever you do stick t one set of rules for the whole season, and don't change them too much in the second season.

Give viewer's an experience that traditional cricket does not give them....and see money running into your coffers.


I just hope ICL does all this, then I will certainly switch, cause even though we are fans of traditional cricket, we are bored of it.

posted by aniket @ 10:16 PM